Text: Ahmed Zaidan My Finnish language is like a hotel by the highway, while my Arabic is like the city of Tokyo, and my English resembles the city of Turku. Language is a city full of alleyways and small details. Poetry is the old town in the city of language. Some languages in us form

Text: Giti Nassouri Persian and Indian culture have been two of the oldest and most fertile grounds poetry. Poetry is visible in the lives of different social classes. More than being the preoccupation of a social and cultural elite, poetry has been the means through which the ordinary people living in these cultures made their

Text: Petra Laiti The question I get asked most by a mile is how being a Saami is visible in my life. In this essay I ponder why basic questions about one’s Saaminess are not only hurtful but also echoing underlying structures of Finnish society.   The question “how you can tell if you’re a

Text: Ahmed Hassan and Konsta Savolainen Translated from Finnish into English by Outi Korhonen In the activities of NordicSom we focus on constructing issue-based Nordic collaboration in such a manner that ethnic background does not define the activities. Understanding the significance of multilingualism is one possible channel to influence. In this context our partner Svenska nu motivates and inspires Finnish

When I, a Finnish woman, became a mother to children from a cultural minority group, I was forced to come face-to-face with misconceptions of our well-meaning officials as well as structural racism of our society. “It is against the constitution that your family should go out of their way to secure basic services. It is

Renata Emilsson Peskova, modurmal@modurmal.com Móðurmál helps educate a new generation of plurilingual children who will be able to draw on their cultural and linguistic resources in the future in various positions, as future teachers, interpreters, entrepreneurs, and leaders. Móðurmál – the Association on Bilingualism is an umbrella organisation whose main goal is to teach mother tongues,

Mari Korpimäki kolttasaameksi / in Skólt Sámi Minulta meni pitkään ymmärtää, etteivät lapsuuden kavereiden mummolat olleet tuhannen kilometrin välimatkan päässä toisistaan, kuten meillä. Pitkään meni ymmärtää myös se, miksi en puhu omaa äidinkieltäni koltansaamea. Isäni synnyinkoti on Savon sydämessä Kaavilla Rovevaarassa ja äitini kotipaikka pohjoisen kolttakylässä, Inarijärven eteläpuolella, Mustolassa. Meille oli luonnollista, että kieli vaihtui

Text: Mari Korpimäki Translation to Skólt Sámi: Anna-Katariina Feodoroff [suomeksi] Muʹst mõõni kuʹǩes äiʹǧǧ fiʹttjed, što päʹrnnpoodd taaurõõžži ääkkiʹʒʒe paaiʹǩi kõõskâst jie leämma dohat ǩilomettar, mâʹte meeʹst. Kuʹǩes äiʹǧǧ mõõni še fiʹttjed tõn, mõõn diõtt jiõm maainâst jiijjan jieʹnnǩiõl nuõrttsääʹmǩiõl. Eččam šõddâmpäiʹǩǩ lij Savo čâđđmest Kaavi Rovevääʹrest da jeännam dommpäiʹǩǩ tââʹvv sääʹmsiidâst, Aanarjääuʹr saujjbeäʹlnn, Mustolasiidâst. Miʹjjid

Pirita Näkkäläjärvi “NRK Sápmi is taking part in undermining the value of the Sámi language because they don’t prioritise Sámi-language content more on their website. Internet plays a central role in most of our lives and it is an important domain, in which the Sámi language should be visible.” I couldn’t agree more with Mr Mikkel